Chapter 1, The Villa Summary

The English Patient, by Michael Ondaatje, is a novel written in the chaotic style of a dream, following four people attempting to find solitude in the last few months of World War II. Hana, a nurse, cares for a burned man, the English patient, while Caravaggio, an old friend from Canada, arrives to care for her. Kip, a sapper with the British army, arrives some time later to rid the villa where they all reside of unexploded land mines and booby traps, soon finding himself not only a part of this menagerie of broken people, but discovering a way out of his solitary life through an intimacy shared with Hana. The novel is an intriguing look at human nature and a touching snapshot of humanity as a whole.

Hana works in the garden, caring for the precious vegetables she has planted there to...